'Epic' AGM for Chandrasekaran as TCS Chairman

Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, was CEO of TCS, the country's top software services exporter, until February 21 before taking over as Chairman of Tata Sons.Megha Mandavia | ET Bureau | June 17, 2017, 08:49 IST

MUMBAI: At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) annual general meeting of shareholders, new chairman N Chandrasekaran found himself showered with epithets such as Hanuman, who fights alongside king Ram in the Indian epic Ramayana.

Ratan Tata and his aide Ishaat Hussain, a board member of TCS, were also called Bahubali and Katappa respectively — a popular film reference of a loyal relationship between a king and servant.

This was Chandrasekaran's first shareholding meeting as the chairman of Tata Group. His predecessor Cyrus Mistry was ousted in a surprise decision by Tata Sons board in October last year, sending shockwaves across corporate India and sparking a board battle for control of the salt-to-software conglomerate.

"We welcome you for a long inning. This is a eureka moment for Chandra. Bombay House is becoming Chennai house, " said shareholder Arun Kumar. "Ishaat Hussain, you are Katappa and Ratan Tata is Bahubali. You displayed your character as Tata sons spokesperson in 2016."

Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, was CEO of TCS, the country's top software services exporter, until February 21 before taking over as Chairman of Tata Sons, the investment holding company of the $103 billion conglomerate.

Rajesh Gopinathan was promoted as the CEO of TCS at a time when Indian IT industry is grappling with slowing growth, a need to automate and protectionist US visa rules.

"Ratan Tata has completed the mission successfully by hiring Chandra. You, pointing at Chandra, is colourful, informative and intelligent," said Ashalata Maheshwari, a veteran of shareholder meetings since many years. Another shareholder Annie Aranha called Chandrasekaran a bright light for the Tata Group.

"Ratan Tata, a doyen, has spotted a bright light in dark tunnel. Chandra will lead us now with his Rock of Gibraltar team," she said.

Shareholder Adil Irani however was not too happy with Chandrasekaran because the chairman omitted mentioning Mistry in his opening remarks were he thanked recently retired director Vijay Kelkar for his services to the company.

"You forgot to thank your predecessor Cyrus Mistry who was kicked out in a wrong manner. Please have some moral courage," said Irani, who had also made his unhappiness vocal in shareholder meetings called last year to oust Mistry as a director from boards of listed Tata companies.

Several shareholders also expressed concern regarding possible job losses, increasing protectionism in the United States, increase in employee costs and absence of bonus shares for many years.

"The future world is a new technology era. History has shown that despite people fearing job losses technology has created more jobs and helped economy grow," said Chandrasekaran. "On the U.S. visas issue, nothing had changed on ground, we continue to recruit in every market… United States, United Kingdom, India" Chandrasekaran added that TCS has offered jobs to close to 20000 people this fiscal and has skilled 200,000 employees across 600,000 competencies.

The company's new CEO Gopinathan said it hired 79,000 people globally last fiscal, including 11,500 in foreign markets.

Many shareholders expressed displeasure for not being able to participate more in the recent buyback of 561,40,350 equity shares, representing about 3% of its total equity. Tata Sons, which earns more than 73 percent stake, made a whopping Rs 10,278 crore from the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) share buyback.

Separately, RCom initiated contempt proceedings in the apex court against the Department of Telecommunications, blaming it for delaying a spectrum sale that would have enabled dues to be paid to Ericsson and lenders.